Appletell reviews the iMo Monster MIMO USB monitor

Provides: Portable screen real estate
Developer: MIMO Monitors
Minimum Requirements: Two USB 2.0 ports (or one high powered)
Price: $259.99
Availability: Now

MIMO monitors are tiny monitors designed to add to your screen real estate without tying up your monitor output or taking up much space on your desk. The company’s newest creation is the iMo Monster. It’s their biggest yet at just over 10 inches, and it comes complete with a touch screen.

Normally, the hardest selling point of any of the MIMO monitors is also their reason for existence—their small size. Most users have a difficult time figuring out just what they’d use such a small monitor for. This is a valid concern, since many users aren’t used to the idea of an external monitor in general, let alone a really small one. But the latest model from MIMO, the iMo Monster, helps alleviate some of that concern since it uses a 10 inch screen. That’s bigger than an iPad. It even has touch support, though not multitouch, so you’ll have to restrict yourself to a single finger.

There’s not much inside the box—just the screen itself, a cable, an unnecessary power adapter and a CD. The cable is special in that it has two USB plugs on one end and the smaller connection on the screen side. This has caused some confusion in the past since many Macs will power this type of screen fully using just one plug, but it has become a little easier to understand after Apple released the iPad; it, too, needs a higher powered USB port. MIMO monitors take advantage of these higher powered USB ports to eliminate the need for an extra port. So, you can use a regular USB cable if you have an extra around. And if that wasn’t enough, there are also two extra USB ports on the monitor itself, because it knows it’s kinda hogging USB as it is.

You will need the CD, though. The monitor won’t do anything without it since you’ll need the drivers for both the screen and the touch support. This is a bit of a change, too, since you used to have to pay for the Mac touch driver separately.

I had some difficulty getting touch to work the way it was intended. The screen wants to control the cursor on my main monitor and resists nearly all attempts to use it as anything but your main monitor. I did finally bend it to my will, but it was difficult to deal with and perhaps not even worth installing the touch driver anyway. Applications on OSX just aren’t written to be touched. And yes, I know, there’s a stylus built into the screen. I think Steve Jobs once said that if you see a stylus, they did it wrong… or something to that effect. I don’t wholeheartedly agree, but I just don’t think I need to be using a stylus on this guy. It’s not a Wacom tablet, so I doubt anyone is going to get much real use out of the touch screen except for the occasional button press.

What isn’t just another feature on the list is the larger screen of the iMo Monster. It really helps to make it more worthwhile. It’s still much smaller than a standard monitor, but it’s much more usable than the 7 inch models that have been available for some time now. This size makes the iMo Monster a quick and easy way to add screen space without lugging around a regular monitor. The iMo Monster is small enough to fit inside of many laptop bags, and it only needs one cable with a MacBook Pro. Even if you’re a desktop user, you still might find the extra screen space useful.

But what are you going to use it for? That’s a good question, and one you need to answer before even thinking about buying one of these. If you’re a photographer with Lightroom 3, you could use this monitor as a full screen preview of your images thanks to the excellent built-in multiple monitor support. Maybe you want to have iTunes visible at all times. The touch capabilities are actually quite useful for this purpose. Maybe you want to have your Twitter feed just a glance away (this is how I often use it). Maybe you’d like to use it like a picture frame, or a screen dedicated to Mail. You could even use it to house a word processor while having another document or web page with your source information open on your default screen. Basically, it’s a perfect place to store one app at a time and really shines when it’s an app that doesn’t require much mouse interaction.

In the end, the iMo Monster’s worth is determined by what you’ll actually do with it. But thanks to its larger screen yet still model thin size, it’s a perfect addition to a mobile setup. It’s an easy way to expand your screen real estate while staying portable and limiting the number of cables involved. It’s the best option available when it comes to mini USB monitors, but it’s still very pricey for how much it can help you. I think these types of monitors would really catch on if they could be offered at a substantially lower price point in this size range, but I just don’t see that happening anytime soon.

Appletell Rating:

Buy the iMo Monster